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Clement A. Evans

Clement A. Evans (born Clement Anselm Evans; February 25, 1833 – July 2, 1911) was a Confederate armyinfantrygeneral in the American Civil War. He was also a politician, preacher, historian and author. He edited a twelve-volume work on Confederate military history, so named, in 1899.[1]

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Evans was born in Stewart County, Georgia, near the city of Lumpkin. In 1854 Evans married Mary Allen "Allie" Walton whose marriage brought eight children, three of whom died in infancy. He studied at the Augusta Law School and was admitted to the bar at the age of 18. By the age of 21, he was a county judge, and a state senator at the age of 25. With the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860, Evans organized a company of militia.[2]

After the war ended, he became an influential Methodist minister, advancing the “holiness movement,” a controversial doctrine that eventually split the denomination. He pastored churches in the Atlanta area, some with memberships as large as 1,000, until his retirement in 1892. Three years later, Evans authored the Military History of Georgia, heavily based upon his Civil War memoirs. He then edited and co-wrote the Confederate Military History, a 12-volume compendium, first published in 1899. Finally, he co-authored the four-volume Cyclopedia of Georgia. Regarding the war, Evans said:

If we cannot justify the South in the act of Secession, we will go down in History solely as a brave, impulsive but rash people who attempted in an illegal manner to overthrow the Union of our Country.[3]

Evans died in Atlanta on July 2, 1911: his body lay in state in the central rotunda of the capitol building while the state legislature adjourned for a day to attend his funeral. Evans was buried in Atlanta's Oakland Cemetery, just a few feet away from the grave of John Gordon. The state legislature created Evans County in the southeastern part of Georgia in 1914 in honor of his memory.
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